We hadn’t planned to come this far south on our road trip of the States. Time constraints and commitments in Missoula meant we had intended to go as far as Yellowstone National Park and then loop back up towards Montana. However, when we woke up in Driggs, in the Teton National Park, we were met with dreary, miserable grey rain. To our dismay we checked the weather forecast and discovered that the rain was set to stay over the Tetons and our pocket of Wyoming for the next week. What to do, what to do…?
After much deliberation and calendar checking we decided to head south, to Salt Lake City. We weren’t sure if it was a wise move, it was a long way off track and would add around 700 miles to our trip but considering fuel is practically free here (compared to Europe!) and Salt Lake is somewhere we’d always wanted to see, how bad a decision could it be??
And what a brilliant decision it turned out to be!
The sun has shone from the minute we arrived and yesterday we hiked up on of the biggest peaks in the area; Deseret Peak. Over 10,000 ft high and an 8 mile round trip, no mean feat in 33 degree heat! The hike itself is beautiful, and we were even lucky enough to spot a doe trotting along the meadow en route! At the summit you are treated to an unbelievable 360 panorama of the Salt Lake and the Salt flats (where the land speed record was set). In one direction is Utah and over the other mountain range lies Nevada. The scenery is simply stunning and the lake is so vast it’s very hard to believe you’re not looking at the sea.
More to come on the Salt Lake itself. What a diverse country this is, and we’ve only seen a tiny fraction. I think I could spend forever travelling round America. If only work, life, time and money didn’t get in the way…!
Here are some of the photos from the top.
Sharon Wray Writing 